cuts and how to extend them for everybody. the president opposed but now a group in the white house opposed to the president. and now singing a digit tune after tea party favorite christine o'donnell beat the pick in the senate race here. michael steele is talking to cnn. we're going to hear his blunt message to republican naysayers like carl cove. it was called the walmart of online sex trafficking. craigslist planning to clean it up. the adult services section gone for good after pressure from the authorities and amber lyon is here with the highlights of that hearing. also, the am fix blog is up and running this morning. join the live conversation right now. go to cnn.com/amfix. we're going begin with your paycheck and the political battle over how much of it you'll get to take home in 2011

if you're lucky enough to have a job an a paycheck to take home. >> president obama says 500,000 new jobs are on the way now that the small business aid bill is set to pass the senate later today. two republicans jumped the aisle to help get that done. dan loathian is live. fellow democrats could be standing in his way, dan. >> that's right, when you have these 31 house democrats who have sent a letter to their house leadership wanting this extension to also go to all incomes, not just middle class americans. the reason for this is they believe at this time, they should not be raising taxes on any americans at all because it would negatively impact economic growth. the white house, though, has been very clear about this saying that this is something that the administration says that the america simply can't afford because they'd have to

borrow $700 billion in order to pay for this. so what lawmakers should do is move forward with the middle class tax cuts because those are the people who need it the most during this difficult economic time. >> right now, we can decide to extend tax relief for the middle class. right now, we could decide that every american household would receive a tax cut on the first $250,000 of their income. but once again, leaders across the aisle are saying no. they want to hold these middle class tax cuts hostage until they get an additional tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of americans. >> now, reacting to these house democrats, white house spokesman robert gibbs saying that the democratic party say very big party with many different viewpoints just like republicans. but the bottom line is the president has not made any room

for negotiation here. what we're seeing, though, this is just the latest push by the white house to get on top of the economy. we've seen them get this jobs bill now. you've seen president bush and $350 billion in new proposals. all of this is trying to show americans during this very difficult time and leading up to the mid-term elections that this administration is doing everything it can to try and turn the economy around. >> dan, i want to drill in on the jobs bill. 500,000 new jobs are magically going to appear by signing the bill. what is now in it that the president says is going to trigger actual will you jobs? >> what you're looking at is $3 billion that will go to the smaller banks. that will then lend the money to the small businesses. the biggest road block here, the hurdle that a lot of these small companies have been facing is, listen, there's a lot of uncertainty. we don't know whether or not we can get the capital that weed me

for new investment, for hiring. and so the administration is saying if we can provide the capital for these small businesses then they in turn will put that money into the economy and they will hire more people. it's ail about job creation. if the small businesses can get the money, then they can create the jobs. >> all right, dan, thanks. >> okay. >> dan, thank you. coming up in an hour and 40 minutes we're going to be joined by congressman gary peters of michigan. he's one of the 31 house democrats who want the bush tax credits extended to everyone. we'll talk about the fight within his own party and in the end which side will win. from other news from the white house, the president is planning to hire had an elizabeth for the head of the new government agency created under that reform bill. she's going to report to the president, of course but also to

the treasury secretary tim geithner. that will be interesting because she's been critical of the treasury department. and christine o'donnell, tea party favorite in delaware's new republican senate nominee will have the full backing of the committee. michael steele had a stern message for karl rove and others in his own party who are refusing to endorse o'donnell. >> how can you claim defeat before you attempt victory? this makes no sense. it makes no sense, stop it. stop it. >> that's your message, stop it? >> stop it. relates get behind our nominees and win the election. >> steele expressed confidence that o'donnell would beat democrat chris kuhns in the general election. coming up, we'll see what fellow

republicans have to say about the tea party favorite. well, also new this morning, seeking federal help for san bruno. california governor schwarzenegger sent a letter for the declaration of the explosion that killed four and destroyed 40 homes. the fire and heat so intense, first responders thought a plane went down. listen to this, now there's new evidence that the disaster was extremely preventible. dan simon with the latest on the investigation. the imam behind the planned islam mosque and center is accused of being a slumlord. it alleges that imam feisal abdul rauf had to fix the problems. well, if you're at the

greenville drive and the lakewood blue clause they were kluging it out. watch this. boom. greenville, south carolina. it starts with the collision. the greenville runner was out and started jawing with the pitcher. both benches cleared. and the base brawl was on. >> did anyone get in trouble? >> let's find out. not really. just looked pretty cool. you know, baseball, folks, nobody really gets hurt, do they? >> no, there's a lot of shoving. hats come off. they get thrown on the ground. they come back on, you know. >> who won? i'm going to find out. go ahead. >> my money's on the blue claws. seven minutes past the hour right now. let's get a check of the morning's headlines. rob marciano in the extreme weather center. i'm sure rob is shedding a little tears today. your beloved yankees lost, right? sorry. >> i turned it off. i think they won, right? >> jeter with the fake hit? >> they lost.

you heard it here first at 6:07. >> jeter does deserve the academy award for the acting job. let's talk about karl. tropical storm right now, this thing came across yucatan yesterday. near hurricane-force winds. and it's actually in the gulf of mexico and we do anticipate to strengthen here. it is not going to get into texas. the forecast track for this does it get it to hurricane strength. and then as we gets towards sunday or really saturday, into saturday night, we expect this to make landfall as a category 1 into northern mexico. some of this will get a little bit -- some of this moisture may train up to into southern texas. i'll have video and mail of that in 30 minutes. some of that severe weather is heading towards the great lakes and mid-atlantic today.

back to you guys. >> hey, rob, the blue claws also won. they did. 6-1. six more games to go in the atlantic something, blah, blah, blah. still to come on the most news in the morning, craigslist on the hot seat on capitol hill after amber lyon's investigation into the website's adult services ads. and amber, kiran, is going to join us next. i've got power pain can't mess with.

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♪ welcome back to the most news in the morning. 12 minutes past the hour right now. making sure that pilots get enough sleep. obviously, if you're flying in a plane, you want to know that your pilot is well rested, right? well, the house is holding a hearing today on the problem of pilot fatigue. last week, the faa proposed new rules last week. the ntsb also says that pilot fatigue has been linked to more than 250 airplane fatalities over the past 15 years.

an a.m. foulup and craigslist coming clean about sex trafficking on the web. an official on the site yesterday told a house panel its adult services section is gone and it's not coming bag. but there's fear at that ads will and already have migrated to less responsible websites. >> the internet has played a big part in sex traffic of every client of boys and girls. averaging ages of 11 to 17. >> amber lyon is one of the people who brought these concerns right to the highest levels of craigslist. you went went to craig himself. and you're joining us from washington this morning. so, i guess, is this a done deal for craigslist? >> well, that was a good question yesterday, drew. that these representatives asked

this representative of craigslist. they were saying, you know, when this media pressure fizzles out and the heat's down are you going to reopen this under another name or possibly reopen the site when there's less attention. this rep said, you know what, we're done, we have no more intentions to open the adult services section. at that point, the representatives commended the site for making this decision. calling craigslist a potential leader in this industry in setting an example for others. >> you know, amber, are they just going to get more creative from their ads? it was clear from your reporting that craigslist had no idea what was going on on its website, didn't really have the ability or wherewithal to police its own site. i'm just wondering won't there be tricks of the trade, so to speak, to allow this to continue on other sites, as well as craigslist? >> we aired a story yesterday there's a 12-year-old girl who was being sex trafficked on

backbeige.com. a research report came out with a study that backpage is the number two behind craigslist for making money off of these ads. even the craigslist rep himself said even though you guys think we haven't done enough working with these advocacy groups, look at these other groups, they're not working with you at all. >> anywhere with all for congress to put more money into the actual trafficking itself? these websites are just a conduit for this stuff to happen but obviously it's not going to stop? >> that was a big concern yesterday, how much money does law enforcement need to fight this problem. how many more beds do they need to house these girls once they're rescued. above all, drew, an interesting point which really shows how much focus as a country we've given to this issue, we have

more research in the u.s. on the amount of children internationally that have been sex trafficked online. than we do on the amount of children here in the u.s. who have been sex trafficked. that was another focus on the hearing, shifting to start focusing domestically to start solving this problem. >> amber lyon live from washington. thanks. coming up next on the most news in the morning, new york city is looking to ban smoking at very popular outdoor locations. central park. is it a good policy or has the government gone too far? [ dr. banholzer ] every once in awhile there's a moment where everything comes together. where there's magic. and you now understand what nature's been hiding.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning.

time for "minding your business." nebraska's slogan is "a good life." that's exactly what folks in omaha are living, the good life. omaha topping the list of recession-proof cities, in part because of its 5.5% unemployment rate. also on the list, madison, wisconsin. des moines, iowa. and austin, dallas and houston, texas. >> pull up stakes and move towards the center of the country. that's the answer there. new york mayor bloomberg wants to fine smokers for smoking outdoors. banning smokers at beaches, arenas, parks. violators would be fined 50 bucks for each offense. it's expected to be released in city council today and expected to be passed. >> just places like times square when you're walking through if you get behind a smoker, it's not fun. but at the same time, try and figure out how they're going to

enforce that one. >> traveling around the country, new york smokes, people. there are a lot of people here who smoke. >> it's stressful, i guess. >> whoo. i guess. coming up next in the most news in the morning, a secret catholic bishop ordaining women priests. not fiction. it's happening now here in the costelloates and carol is going to join us with an "a.m. original" on that. aah! aah! ha! ah! whoo! hee! heave! forgot your lunch. give me. give me. hee! ohh! ohh! announcer: you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent... i'm ok. because kids in foster care don't need perfection. they need you.

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23 minutes past the hour. just into cnn, new pictures of the pope, pope benedict touching down in scotland in the past hour. it is the first stop on a history-making four-day visit to the united kingdom. it will be the first paperle trip to britain in 28 years and the first ever state visit by a pope. the pope telling reporters on board a flight from rome that the catholic church was not vigil enough in dealing with pedophile priests. drew? >> time now for an "a.m. original." female catholic priests, the vatican opposed to the idea, calling it a crime similar to pedophilia. more women are pursuing the calls of the priesthood. carol costello has the story. good morning, carol. >> you heard kiran mention that pope benedict is in great britain, there to appeal to the

millions of catholic in the country. many tickets remain unsold which suggests many of britain's catholics are indifferent to his presence. you could argue many american-catholics feel the same way because of the wait vatican handled the sex abuse scandal. some say it's time for a change in leadership. a big change. that includes women. ♪ >> reporter: for most catholics this is kear use. women in priestly robes. >> mary is a part of that trinity. >> reporter: preaching from the altar. >> this is the lamb of god. >> reporter: consecrating the bread and wine. gloria considers herself a catholic priest, ordained thanks to an unnamed male bishop who secretly ordained women in 2002. have you ever met the secret bishop? >> no, i have not met the secret

bishop because if anyone ever found out who this bishop was, he would be done. this would be a tremendous risk for this bishop to come out. >> reporter: according to canon lawyers, though, the secret bishop has automatically been excommunicated or banned from the church because he knowingly violated the church law. certainly, the vatican made that clear when it restated recently ordaining women as priest says great offense, on the same level as pedophilia. >> when you saw that, what went through your mind? >> i was horrified. i was horrified. i thought for myself i didn't like that notion of suddenly, i'm in the swimming pool with people who have been accused of sexual abuse, crimes against children. >> reporter: father joseph talbin appointed by the vatican to oversee religious work worldwide said the vatican was

inadvertent and wrong, the ordaination is still a crime. >> the catholic church believes it is the will of god. now, i have to accept that. >> for wimbish shops to be ordained in the united states of america. >> reporter: but even the threat of excommunication isn't stopping catholic women from what they consider the priesthood. carpet carpetnetto says there are five priests, 16 bishops, all of them illegal in the eyes of the catholic church. >> what many people say to us, why don't you go somewhere else you're accepted. i was going to ask you why stick with catholicism when catholicism isn't obviously supportive of you. >> it's catholicism that needs

us. >> reporter: so they hold mass where they can, in their own homes, and noncatholic churches, ministering to mostly small, female congregation who say the church is not meeting their needs. >> if you had a meeting with the pope, if you could see pope benedict, what would you say to him? >> i'm not sure i'd like to have a meeting with this pope just because i don't think he's very open and that's a huge road block. >> reporter: it's the kind of spiritual road block that she is trying to remove. and the catholic church is resisting. is it up to god? >> i think it is up to god. and i think god has said to me you can be ordained. >> so how important is this movement? i asked our vatican analyst john allen. this is what he told me. he said, you look at the poll numbers, large numbers of catholics support the ordination of priests. at the same time most catholics

aren't willing to follow these women until the church gives its blessing. i've asked if these priests would ever be recognized in the eyes of the church in their lifetime, all of them said sadly and emphatically, no. >> but they consider themselves pioneers the future? >> they consider themselves rebels. they say, unless they force the issue, things will never change. >> carol costello, interesting report. thanks. 29 minutes past the hour. time for the morning's top stories. the bp well that leaked millions of gallons of oil into the gulf of mexico could be permanently sealed by sunday. drilling on the relief well is expected to be completed later today. then heavy mud will be pumped in. the procedure will permanently seal it, nearly five months after the first drops of oil spilled. craigslist cleaning up the website telling a house panel the adult services section is gone for good. but, of course, the problem of child sex trafficking is running much deeper than just one

website. and the president's $42 billion aid bill for small business is expected to pass the senate today. two republicans on board with it. the big battle now is to whether to extend the bush era tax cuts for all american or just the middle class. president obama wants the wealthiest americans to pay more next year. but 31 democrats in the house have signed a letter opposing that plan. they say that no american should see a tax hike. finally, all of those primaries are done. the field set for both republicans and democrats. and in 47 days, voters will have their say. >> yeah, and right now, the parties are plotting their pads to victory. when we say cnn equals politics, we mean it. every hour, we're going to be breaking down the big stories on the cnn political ticker. check it at cnn.com/politics. our jim acosta is live in washington and you're checking out the political ticker as well. the big story, of course, is the

gop, seeming to change their tune, and seeming to get behind tea party candidate christine o'donnell. she was the one victorious in the repub a different tune, kiran, it might be because of who's leading the orchestra in the republican party. christine o'donnell following her upset win, karl rove, as you remember, publicly criticized her saying she was, quote, nutty. making nutty statements in the past. many republicans are changing their tune. michael steele tells john king the naysayers, in his words need to stop it. adding how you can claim defeat before you attempt victory. and sarah palin who just endorsed christine o'donnell days before her primary took issue with his comment saying he needs to buck up and realize that the primary debate is over it's time tour unity. even rush limbaugh entered the

fray saying republicans talking about o'donnell's baggage need to realize that voters around the country think they've got baggage, too. >> and as rove went on to say, it's more of a referendum that voters don't think they're representative of. they lost a sitting congressman. he is harsh things to say about christine o'donnell saying she had, quote, serious character problems. she went on to say, why did she mislead voters about her education. about how she makes her living. he went on to say he doesn't think republicans can win it. win that seat. >> right, and there were other conservative voices in the days leading up to the primary who were slamming on the brakes saying christine o'donnell can't win the general election because of all of these problems she's had over the years. and essentially sarah palin and, you know, rush limbaugh and those folks, were saying hold on a second. we don't want these establishment republicans

coming, perhaps, from the moderate or liberal sides of the republican party representing the gop, you know, folks who are out there anymore. so they want to see more purity in the republican party, and they think christine o'donnell will help bring that. >> i just find it amazing. i mean, karl rove. he didn't get elected. the voters didn't vote for karl rove. she got the votes. so, i mean, is there a power shift going on, jim, in washington, d.c. where basically that whole political industry is looking outside going oh, my gosh. the future does not look bright? i mean, rove makes money in politics. >> right. there is a big shift going on. and essentially establishment republicans like karl rove are either going to have to play along, get along, or they're going to find themselves sort of out in the cold. and, you know, that night, that primary night that christine o'donnell won there were those rumblings, jessica yellin

reporting the rumblings that perhaps she wouldn't get any money from republican leaders. well, the very next day, john cornyn who is in charge of the campaign committee that gets republican senators elected got behind her. and sent money her way. mitt romney sent money her way. so this san example of how things can change very quickly overnight in politics. and it doesn't help very much -- or it doesn't hurt very much when sarah palin comes in and says, hey, guys, knock it off. and it does speak to who's in charge of the republican party right now. you know, the democrats are saying this is the party of palin, rove, glenn beck, those types. those are the voices that did come out of the wood work to christine o'donnell's defense. and she raised a ton of money yesterday. democrats love the fact that this is happening, and they're hoping that this infighting will continue. just want to throw out one ticker item that's out there. a new cnn/times poll shows the

leader in nevada, his republican who is a tea party favorite they're both in a dead heat. 42% backing angle. and the dnc, they have a new website saying, they've got a new slogan "change that matters." you know, what matters is who wins these races out there. if sharon angle can somehow pull off this upset over harry reid in nevada, you're going to have folks like sarah palin like the more conservative types in the republican party like rush limbaugh saying, see, we told you so. go with where the energy is and the enthusiasm is. >> what could be the tipping point if you're talking neck and neck in nevada? >> you know, i think it's the economy. harry reid has been hoping that all of these problems that

sharron angle has had making various statements along the way will hurt her in the end. but in the end, voters go to the polls with their pocketbooks in mind. harry reid is going to be lucky to eke this out. i think there's new economic data coming out showing once again that nevada has the highest foreclosure rate in the country. voters aren't going to put that out of their minds and focus on a few things that sharron angle has said out in nevada. that poll there, after all of that tough press sharron angle has had, showing that race, showing her ahead, has got to be very worried for the reid campaign. >> thanks for that. remember, for the latest political news anytime, check out the political ticker. cnn.com/ticker. we're taking a closer look at a decades' old gas line that caused a san bruno fire. we're learning that the utility

company knowns apg&e was given money to repair it. however, they used it for something else. dan simon investigating next. when i was seventeen, i was not good to my skin.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. 39 minutes past the hour now. three people are still missing in san bruno, california, almost a week after a gas explosion and fireball that incinerated 37 homes and killed at least four people. well, now, there's new evidence this morning that the gas company knew these people may

have been living on a ticking time bomb. even raised their rates to fix a section of that pipe nearby. dan simon has the latest on the investigation. >> reporter: kiran and drushgs we've learned that a nearby portion of the pipeline was scheduled to be replaced a couple years ago. pg ant e, the utility, got $5 million to do the work but it never happened. the mine that exploded last week was laid down in 1948. it was so old that pa sick life made plans to replace a section of it in san francisco just a couple miles away. in 2007, it got rate increases to dot work. according to a consumer watchdog group, pg ant e got $5 million to do the project but the group called turn, the utility reform network said it never happened. >> money was spent on what they

call higher-priority work. >> and what was that? >> well, you can't track the dollars one by one. but we do know that they spent $62 million more on management incentive bonuses than they had forecasted in 2009. >> reporter: mike florio is a senior attorney for the watchdog. he said pg&e spent the money dedicated to replace the pipeline so it is now seeking rate increases again. another $5 million to replace the same stretch of pipeline. and how do you know this? >> because it's right in the documentation they file with the puc to support the rate cases. you know, if you dig deep enough into these big, thick documents, this is what you find. >> reporter: the california public ewe silts commission or puc, is deciding whether to go with pg&e's request. those documents provided by cnn by turn, says that section of

pipe ranks in the top 00 for the highest risk of failure. the pg&e documents also say if the replacement of the pipe does not turn, risks associated with this segment will not be reduced. high-value natural gas lines snake through the san bruno neighborhood. pg&e hasn't disclosed exactly where the problematic line is. but as we discovered, much of the line runs through residential areas. this is another large section of pipeline. this is about a mile away from where the explosion happened. it's also feet away from many homes. the location of pipelines like this are generally kept secret to literally prevent terrorists from coming in and blowing them up. so it's possible that people might be living next to them and not even know it. the only way to tell may be from these yellow sidewalk markers that are used to alert workers.

until pg&e until that section of pipe it identified years ago will be replaced. >> if they would have fixed that section that they said they wanted to fix maybe they would have found something that would have led them to look a mile or two south of there. we don't know that. what we do know is, the project was slated for 2009, it didn't get done and now they're proposing to do it again in 2013. >> reporter: pg&e provided us with a statement. it says, quote, pg&e is committed to performing the work necessary to assure the safety of its gas transmission system. accordingly, pg &est is constantly prioritizing its projects. did dent with this line section as being a high priority project in its 2008 gas transmission rate case filing. subsequent to that filing pg&e provided an assessment, based on the updated assessment and the

reassurance it provides us we rescheduled the project accordingly. pg and e spent more than on its gas project than authorized for the period 2008 and 2009. so pg&e not denying the basic facts of its story, it's just said it rescheduled thing due to its projects. coming up at 44 minutes after the hour, still to come in the most news in the morning, rob is going to have this morning's travel forecast. that's right after this break. >> hi, i'm jack johnson, i spend about four months on the road. when i go on tour, three things i never leave home without would be a bike, skateboard and my ukulele. i know this makes see sound like

a horrible dad or good day. i basically starve my children of movies. when we get on a plane, i say, here you go, as many movies as you want for the next 48 hours. the more friends you can bring the better it is, then you don't feel far from home. another friend on the road, one day i walked out back after the show it was definitely a negative impact after the tour. we started cutting down on the use of plastic. what we wanted to do is every time we visited a town leave it in a better place. we wanted to expand the positive impact that we could have. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above.

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♪ beautiful shot this morning. great music as the sun comes up over new york city. 58 degrees right now. it's a clear, beautiful, september day. a little bit later, going up to a beautiful 76. nice day to chill in central park. >> yeah, don't smoke.

48 minutes after the hour. let's check in with rob marciano with the travel forecast. i know a couple people heading to jamaica, what do you think? >> not too bad. >> the storm south of cancun heading across the bay of campeche and the gulf of mexico this is going to strengthen back to hurricane status likely. certainly has brought a fair amount of rainfall and wind to parts of yucatan. here's the track bringing it into the northern parts of mexico late saturday -- or actually, probably late in the day saturday we'll see this happen with a category 1 storm. as far as closer to home, we do have thunderstorms rolling throughout the great lakes. this is what it did yesterday. in parts of kansas, stom chasers running this down, boom. hail there the size of softballs that will certainly do damage to your windshield. numerous tornadoes touching down. ten reports of that.

we will see some, probably to not that extent today, across parts of the great lakes and the ohio river valley. may be getting into the mid-atlantic at some point later on, over the next 36 to 48 hours. here's igor. just want to show this because it's still a category 4 storm. it's likely going to be there. it will affect bermuda. if you're traveling to bermuda, hold off another half a day until we nail down this track. back to you guys in new york. >> we'll hold off. i didn't have any plans to go to bermuda. >> i wish i had plans to go to bermuda. storm or no storm. coming up, an unlikely hero disrupts a planned koran burning in texas. jeanne moos talk to the 20-something skateboarder who made a quick get away. ♪ leaving is the hardest part breathe in, breathe out.

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everyone knows a fee is a tax. you raised some taxes during that period, particularly the property tax

as well as a lot of fee increases. as you know, there's a big difference between fees and taxes. but...they're the same. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. there's a big difference between fees and taxes. fees and taxes are one in the same. if it comes out of my pocket, it's a tax. now he says it isn't true. we didn't raise taxes. what? still doing the same thing, paying out more money. typical politician. definitely.

♪ one empty chair back there this morning. welcome back to the most news in the morning. it is 53 minutes, almost 54 manipulates past the hour. that means it is the time for the most news in the morning. >> and proof it takes a village to get this thing on the air. did you hear the one about the skateboarder and the koran? this is a dude who is an unlikely hero after he stopped a book burning and he coined a particular phrase we'll be hearing a lot. >> reporter: two words you won't expect to find in the same sentence "dude" and "koran" words uttered by this 24-year-old skateboarder as he snatched it under a radical threatening to burn it. >> i was like, dude, you have no

koran and ran off. >> reporter: line his line has taken off. >> i was like dude you have no koran. >> reporter: now jacob iceman is being duded to death. dude, you are a hero. you rule, dude. god bless you, dirty hippie. >> they make fun of my hair and stuff that cracks me up. >> reporter: jacob works in a pizza shop. jacob went to the "burn a koran" event in amarillo, texas, to protest it. demonstrators chanted at the guy threatening to burn the muslim holy book. protesters put their hands on the grill to prevent the burning and jacob pretended he was one of the burners standing behind their leader. >> what if someone burned the bible. >> let them do it. it's a free section. >> reporter: seconds later, jacob snatched the koran which had been doused with lighter fluid watch again behind the organizer's back. >> i'm not afraid of that.

>> reporter: jacob gave the book to a muslim. >> some brave young gentleman on a skateboard. >> reporter: jacob describes himself as agnostic. some described him as a thief to which jacob says -- >> somebody is going to like purchase all the materials to make a bomb and i'm going to steal it from them before they put their bomb together and blow it up, does that make me a thief? >> reporter: as for the skateboarder on which jacob made his getaway. guess where that ended up. where else, ebay. we're not even sure jacob uttered the exact words plastered on a t-shirt. it sounds more like "it's called the stolen koran." does this "whole, dude, you have no koran" line remind you of anything. remember this guy. >> don't taz me, bro. >> reporter: jacob wasn't tazed but he does seem a little dazed. no, it's not the radio, it's cnn. >> oh, i'm talking to cnn right

now? >> reporter: yeah, jacob. >> wow. >> reporter: the koran didn't ignite but jacob sure is burning up the internet. >> dude, you have no koran. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn. >> dude, you have no koran. >> reporter: new york. >> he's adorable. >> i mean, he didn't say it at the time. he said it's a stolen koran. i like accuracy, dude. >> how about the glasses? how about the glasses? that aged him 20 years. >> he needs a makeover. anyway, top stories coming your way after the break, dude. n to undo the look of a year's worth of skin aging in just 4 weeks. clinical skincare. neutrogena®.

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money and poushgs with 47 days until election day, more democrats in shake? seats splitting with the president over the bush tax cuts. >> they want to hold these middle class tax cuts hostage until they get an additional tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of americans. >> is it a fight we can afford right now? next on the most news in the morning. and good morning to you, glad you're with us on this glad you're with us on this thursday, it's september 16th. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com first, the top stories, craigslist promising to keep it lien. website tells a house committee that the adult services section is gone for good. amber lyon will join us with the highlights of hearing. tea party candidate carl palladino, the republican

nominee for governor of new york, he promises to bring it back to albany if he wins in november. one politician compared him to hitler. others say he's unfit to lead. well, he's going to join us so we can hear from him. carl palladino, 7:15 eastern. and catholic women ordained as priests? yes, the church calls it a great crime, the same as pedophilia. carol costello is going to join us with an "a.m. original" just ahead. all right, one minute past the hour right now. and first up, your money and your taxes. when it comes to tax cuts, it's getting tough for the president to figure out just who's on his side. 31 house democrats have now broken from the ranks, each of them signing a letter to their congressional leaders, opposing the president's plan to extend the bush tax cuts for the middle class only. and not for the top-income

earners. they want everyone to continue to get tax breaks. it's your paycheck up for grabs. americans earning between $50,000 and $75,000 will get socked by a tax hike of more than 1,100 bucks on average. more than $100,000 and it's $3,600 added to your taxes. dan loathian is live at the white house. of how does the president navigate this. and say, you know what, this isn't the time to be raising taxes on anyone? >> that's right, you know, this does present yet another challenge for the administration because largely, up to now, how this debate has been framed is, this is what democrats are trying to do and over here, this is what republicans are trying to block or hold hostage. that's the terminology that we're hearing. but now the president is having to deal with descent within his own party. you're hearing now from representative jim marshall of georgia who says, quote, we

should not be raising taxes in the middle of a recession. representative travis childers saying, quote, it is essential that we keep things as they are in the short term. you have these moderate and conservative democrats who are very concerned in the midterm election that if taxes are raised, it will only hurt some of the economic progress that we've seen so far. but, you know, the white house is showing no signs of compromise here. a white house spokesman robert gibbs pointing out that, listen, this is a big democratic party with different views much like republicans in that the country simply cannot afford to extend these tax breaks for americans who are making, or couples making more than $250,000. that lawmakers need to move forward, in providing relief for the people who need it the most, and those are middle class americans. >> right now, we could decide to extend tax relief for the middle class. right now, we could decide that every american household would

receive a tax cut on the first $250,000 of their income. but once again, the leaders across the aisle are saying no. they want to hold these middle class tax cuts hostage until they get an additional tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of americans. >> so, you have these tax cuts. the jobs bill that is expected to be signed today. you hear the president talk about proposals to provide jobs through infrastructure investment. all of this designed for, number one, job creation, number two, to show that this administration is doing everything it can to turn this ailing economy around. drew, kiran. >> we have just shown on the graphic, what it means come next year, if in fact these are not passed, talking about hikes for various income earners. where does it stand right now, the actual measure? >> well, we still don't know what will happen. i mean, yes, in the house, you

have the house leadership saying that they very much support what the president is doing in the senate, it does appear that they're also supporting what the president is pushing which is providing relief for middle class americans, not for those couples making more than $250,000. i mean, clearly, the administration believing this is something that can't be afforded right now. $700 billion would have to be borrowed. that's what the white house says, if you provide tax relief for these wealthier americans. so the president is hoping that congress will move forward and provide the relief for the people who need it the most. >> all right, dan loathian for us at the white house. thanks so much. coming up in the next half hour of "american morning," we're going to be joined by one of the 31 house democrats we're talking about, those who want the tax cuts to be extended for everyone. congressman gary peters live.

and craigslist now coming clean. an official for craigslist told the house panel that it's dishl th official that the adult services section is now gone. >> the internet has played a big part in sex traffic of every client, both boys and girls. not only craigslist, every child we have has been sold on craigslist, averaging ages of 11 to 17. >> amber lyon joins us who investigated craigslist. what about the concern it's going to just migrate to other sites. it's almost impossible to monitor the internet, isn't it? >> yeah, that was another point brought up in the meeting yesterday, drew. is that the sex sites have moved to other sites, one of those sites being backpage.com. we talked to several sources who said we're not going to go on

another section of craigslist, we're just going to move to another site altogether. that's another question that craigslist brought up for the moment, that while people are criticizing them for not working with the advocates and attorneys generals, some of these other sites like backpage.com having had any involvement to solve this problem, drew. >> owe is congress looking to do anything regulationwise, in terms of, i don't know, put something kind of restraintses on some of these websites? >> they didn't bring anything up about that. but what they really talked about doing was giving more money to law enforcement, so they can have more officers screening the sites, looking for the ads. code words that it could be a minor. going after the demand here. the johns and the pimps. >> thanks. two more bodies have been found buried in the wrong graves at arlington national cemetery,

the army making this discovery after follow the allegation of mismanagement. a report said that thousands of military graves could be affected. just minutes ago, pope benedict getting a royal welcome from royal elizabeth after arriving for the first stop in scotland. it's the first paperle trip to britain in 28 years. the first ever state visit by a pope. >> well, do you bank with chase or do you bank online? well, there's more trouble this morning, chase's website is couldn't again after it crashed earlier this week. atms and telephone services are not affected. chase says it will work with chase customers because of bill deadlines it couldn't meet because of the outage. americans like their discount airlines the best. not because of low fares. a new survey said passengers consistently ranked those carriers higher in quality and service. "usa today" ranked the best for quality and service, jetblue

topped by hawaiian air. >> because they're going to hawaii. >> who's sad about that. southwest, frontier and airtran are on the top spots. >> if you're jetblue, you never know what's going to happen on your flight. >> got. >> rob marciano is in atlanta. i was going to say in the atlantic because we've got so many storms churning around there. >> yeah, we haven't seen -- at one point yesterday we had two category 4 storms in the atlantic basin. and we haven't seen that since the 1920s. so it's shaping up to be an historic season. luckily, we haven't seen too many impacts in the u.s. looks like that continue to be case with karl is in the gulf of mexico, the bay of campeche and heading that way. that's good news for texas. show it should go into mexico late friday into early saturday. probably as a category 1 storm.

so that's a scary proposition for the folks who live down that way. also scary, some storms rolling through the ohio river valley. not too bad right now. this is what it looked like across kansas. check out this video from a storm chaser. yeah that will take your windshield out. baseball-size hail. you won't see that kind of action across the ohio river valley, but we are see some severe weather to a lesser extent in the highlighted red areas. much more on that, plus the other two storms. let's not forget about julia and igor in about 30 minutes. guys. >> a lot going on as usual this time of year. thanks, rob. well, he says he's mad as hell. >> yeah. >> and he's bringing a baseball bat with him to albany if he becomes the next governor, it's tea party candidate, carl

palladino, he's offending some, apologizing to no one. and he's joining us live. ten minutes past the hour. hey, lawrence, my parents want to talk to you. oh. about what? uh, they don't really think you're an exchange student. what? they think you're a businessman, using our house to meet new clients in china. for reals, player? [ woman speaks chinese ] they overheard a phone call. [ speaks chinese ] something about shipping with fedex to shanghai. and then you opened a bottle of champagne. that was for a science project. [ man and woman speaking chinese ]

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. carl paladino says he's bringing his baseball bat to albany next year if he's elected as governor of new york. and he sounds like he has plans to use it. >> he's a millionaire developer, anything but subtle, he once proposed using privileges to house people on welfare. he's the republican candidate after crushing rick lazio tuesday night. >> if we've learned anything tonight, it's that new yorkers are as mad as hell. and we're not going to take it anymore. >> carl paladino the republican

candidate of new york joins us from buffalo. good morning. >> thank you. >> you promised to take the baseball bat to albany. if you become governor, within the confines of your office, how do you propose as governor to actually get anything done up there? >> well, the baseball bat say metaphor for the people. and by use of transparency, a spotlight, and the executive strong constitution of the state of new york, we will do it. >> mr. paladino, you're being criticized from the left, as you might expect. but this is a left-leaning state. i know it's a different kind of a political year this year. but you're vehemently against abortion, right, even in cases of incest or rape. you've been labeled with sending around some racist jokes in your past. and you proposed this prison for welfare recipients. i mean, you can really get elected in new york state with those kind of -- i wouldn't even

call them conservative views. they're for right viewpoints. >> well, first of all, the remarks that they make are way out of bounds. i never proposed putting welfare people in prisons. i proposed using an old facility, an old tuberculosis facility and restoring and taking down the barbed wire, and it's nothing more or less like a dormitory-style of campus. >> but would you be housing welfare recipients? >> yes, we would be housing them, when they're in our rural program under our dignity corps. the dignity corps is very similar to the civilian conservation corps that fdr had proposed orr or that fdh had implementedle years ago. that dignity corps would have a rural section, those who want to work in the forests and rural areas would have to be housed. i propose instead of building new facilities, and we have

facilities, up in particular, up near plattsburgh, new york, that could be converted. the girl picked it up there and she made -- she linked up the word "welfare" and "prison" and put that into a story that made it sound like i'm sending welfare people to prison. how ridiculous is that, the best way to left is. >> you also make heat to the right as well, at least former leaders, including senator alphonse del mat toe, he penned a letter to you saying you're a divisive figure not fit to leave. and, quote, a fringe element to choose the republican nominee. >> is that right. >> what do you say to people who say you're divisive and you're fringe? >> al d'amato is a disgrace.

he's all about money right now. he has access with andrew cuomo. it's a very simple story, and i'm sad that the republican party hasn't called him out on this. the same goes for mccall and koch. these people are lobbyists now. they have access. i'm the one that's talking about getting ready of the pay to play clubs. obviously, i'm a threat to them, that's why you're hearing that nonsense out of a guy like d'amato. he's no great grandfather of the republican party, he's acting as a money-grabbing, money-hungry lobbyist. >> old school politics would say you won the republican primary by going conservative, now, you should be moving back to the center if you want a chance to have that state. sounds like you're not moving anywhere? >> i think you made a remark earlier that carl paladino is maybe appealing to just a part of the -- the people here and just to the right. there are no longer parties in people's minds.

the people of today, as illustrated in many cases by the outflowing of emotion on this election, this primary, the people have come out and they've spoken. and they've said enough of the ruling parties. we want to be individually vetted to all the candidates. we'll make up our own minds. stop telling us who we're going to vote for. stop telling us who's going to be our elected officials because you've disappointed us time and time again. a $15 billion budget in the state of new york -- excuse me, $15 billion in tax increases in the state of new york over the last two years. and they couldn't find one state employee to lay off out of 298,341 employees. this is a culture that's off the page. they should not be in power. they should not be trying to lead people who want the state of new york tax dollars to go for their benefit and not every tom, dick and harry from

everywhere else. >> in some cases it's easier said than done. you've proposed or promised that you could cut the budget by 20% but at the same time cut taxes by 10%. how would you do that? >> the 20% represents getting rid of a number of agencies which are unnecessary in the 21st century. for sure, bringing down the medicaid optional benefits which make us the highest cost by 100% over the next highest, whichch california. >> but how do you run on that, saying you're going to cut services, you're going to cut medicaid? those aren't going to happen in a blue state. >> no, it's not cutting on core services. it's cutting the nonsense. it's cutting waste fraud and abuse. take, for instance, an elderly person, putting them in a nursing home costs $75,000 a year. but housing them in a home where a family member is paid to maintain him could cost as low

as $25,000 a year. why aren't we moving in that direction? that's an example of some of the things. >> carl paladino, we thank you for joining us. good luck in the election coming up. i'm sure we'll be talking to you more as this election really kicks into high gear. thanks again. >> i appreciate it. thank you. still ahead, seeking federal help for san bruno, california governor schwarzenegger sent a letter to president obama requesting a disaster declaration after that deadly gas explosion and inferno that killed four people. three are still missing. and destroyed close to 40 homes last week. the governor toured the area and saw the massive crater and incinerated homes for the first time yesterday. >> if it was a fault of somebody or problem or something that has not been maintained or whatever it may be, you will know. there is no hiding of information, i can guarantee you that. to louisiana now, thousands of dead fish being found in plaquemines parish.

look at these pictures. wow. it didn't take long for people to start pointing fingers at bp. but hold on, state wildlife officials say it looks like low levels of oxygen during low tide caused this. shaq on the attack. shaquille o'neal fighting a lawsuit from a personal assistant, accusing him of stealing personal information and racketeering. the suit says shaq hacked in because he had proof that shaq cheated on his wife with several different women. o'neal's attorneys say the claims are complete fabrication. and the greenwood drive and the lakewood blue claws slugged it out. started with a collision at the plate. the greenville runner was out and started jawing with that guy, the pitcher. uh-oh, fist to cuffs. and the bench is cleared. in the end, the blue claws win

in the end. >> congrats, blue clause. well, coming up, new york is debating whether or not it's a good idea to ban smoking altogether in the city outside. details of the anti-smoking crusade just ahead. it's 23 minutes past the hour.

everyone knows a fee is a tax. you raised some taxes during that period, particularly the property tax as well as a lot of fee increases. as you know, there's a big difference between fees and taxes. but...they're the same. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. there's a big difference between fees and taxes. fees and taxes are one in the same. if it comes out of my pocket, it's a tax. now he says it isn't true. we didn't raise taxes. what? still doing the same thing, paying out more money. typical politician. definitely.

♪ do we need to see that already? it's september. >> it's time. it's time. >> you got all your christmas presents all wrapped up, ready to go? welcome back to the most news in the morning. have yourself a boring little christmas. the head of the largest retail chain says socks and underwear are the hottest items. >> underwear is always hot. the new spokesman for walmart says his retail store is focusing on practical gifts. >> there you go. "minding your business" now, more than 1 million toys from chuck e. cheez are being recalled. the consumer product safety said

no injuries have been reported so far but one kid did put a battery up his nose. >> why do kids do that? starbucks is listening, america. the company says it's putting tall-size drinks back on its menus on drive-through locations. last month, they nixed the tall drinks. >> tall means small there. >> but left the larger, grande, on the list. about a third of starbucks locations in the u.s. have drive-throughs. and new york city michael bloomberg is pushing a new ban on smoking. the new bill would ban smoking in beaches, parks pedestrian plaza, violators will be fined $50. it's expected to be in new york city council today and it is expected to pass. >> all right. a lot of people will be happy about that. some people will not be.

27 minutes past the hour. over the controversy of priest scandal, polling the pope's visit to britain, women are challenging the church on another controversial issue. carol costello with an "a.m. original" just ahead. my name is vonetta, and i suffer from allergies. [ male announcer ] we asked zyrtec® users what they love about their allergy relief, and what it lets them do. the thing i love most about zyrtec® is that it allows me to be outside. [ male announcer ] we bet you'll love zyrtec®, too -- or it's free. [ vonetta ] it is countdown to marshmallow time. [ woman laughs ] [ vomy friends at work think there's more than one "me." ...because on our trips, i always get there faster.

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give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on, to even skin tone in four weeks. new aveeno tinted moisturizers. yes. yes, mr. mayor. i got it. i'm sorry. okay. so i inadvertently said that the fine for smoking in new york city was going to be proposed at $50,000. maybe i exaggerated that a little bit. >> just a little. >> it's $50. >> oh. >> i know. >> so roughly for about the

price of a pack of cigarettes in new york city. >> i apologized to mayor bloomberg and the council expected to pass the ordinance today. $50 for every time you smoke. it's 30 minutes past the hour. craigslist, cleaning it up. the website telling a house panel the adult services section is gone for good. but the problem of child sex trafficking run deeper than any one website. for marijuana and ecstasy. the government saying illegal drug use is at the highest they've seen in a decade, thanks to a surge of those three drugs. marijuana use rose by 8%. the rise in medicinal marijuana use is sending the wrong message to young people. and pope benedict getting a royal welcome to his arrival in edinburgh, scotland. the pope was greeted by queen

elizabeth. on the flight from rome, benedict told reporters that the catholic church was too slow in dealing with pedophile priests, calling it a great sadness. well, controversy is following the pope on his visit to britain. they're calling that a crime. that's the same word used for women as priests. care costello is live from washington with an "a.m. original." >> reporter: you guys mentioned that pope benedict is in britain this morning, as you said, his visit is without controversy. many tickets remain unsold there which suggests many of britain's catholics are indifferent to his presence. you could argue many american-catholics feel the same way because of the way the vatican handled the sex abuse candle. some say it's time for change in leadership. a big change. that includes women. ♪ >> reporter: for most catholics this is curious. women in priestly robes.

>> mary is a part of that trinity. >> reporter: preaching from the altar. >> this is the lamb of god. >> reporter: consecrating the bread and wine, considered a crime bit catholic church. she considers herself a catholic priest. have you ever met the secret bishop? >> the secret bishop? no, i have not met the secret bishop because if anyone ever found out who this bishop was, he would be done. it would be a tremendous personal risk. for this bishop to come out. >> reporter: according to canon lawyer, though, the secret bishop has automatically been excommunicated or banned from participating in the church because he knowingly violated church law. and certainly, the vatican made that clear when it restated recently that ordaining women as priests was a great offense. on the same level as pedophilia.

when you saw that, what went through your mind? >> i was horrified. i was horrified. i thought, for myself, i didn't like that notion of suddenly i'm in the swimming pool with people who had been accused of sexual abuse, crimes against children. >> reporter: father joseph talbin appointsed by the vatican to oversee religious work worldwide said though the vatican quickly said the comparison was inadvertent and wrong, the ordination of women is still a serious crime. >> the catholic church has traditionally not arrived at a point where it believes that it is the will of god. now, i think i have to accept that. >> the first women bishops to be or dma ordained in the united states of america. >> reporter: even the threat of excommunication isn't stopping catholic women from what they consider the priesthood. she says there are now five

bishops, 47 priests, 10 deacons and 16 candidates in formation in the united states. all of them illegitimate in the eyes of the catholic church. >> what many people say to us is, well, why don't you go somewhere else where you're accepted? i was just going to ask you that. i mean, why stick with catholicism, when catholicism obviously isn't supportive of you. >> it's catholicism that needs us. >> may god be with you. >> reporter: so they hold masses where they can, in their own homes or noncatholic churches, ministering to mostly female congregations who say the traditional catholic church is is not meeting their needs. is it up to god? >> i think it is up to god and i think god has said to me you can be ordained. >> so how important is this movement, i asked our vatican analyst john allen, this is what he told me. you look at poll numbers, large

numbers of catholics support the ordination of women priests. at the same time, most catholics are not willing to follow these women before the church gives its blessing. kiran, i asked these women who consider themselves catholic priests if the church will ever accept them in their lifetime. all of them said sadly and empathically now. >> they described themselves as rebels, right? >> yes, they say they're rebels. they're trying to force the issue. they have to do something because as you know, the vatican moves at eglacial pace. >> that's right. 31 house democrats breaking ranks for the president, and the white house, it's a setback. michigan's gary peters one of the 31 holdouts. he's going to join us. it's 36 minutes after the hour.

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39 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. president obama says that he needs republicans to support his plan to extend the bush tax cuts for americans making less than 150,000 aids year.

he's accused the gop of holding the middle class hostage to get tax cuts extended for the wealthiest income learners as well. there is real resistance. not from the gop, it's coming from his own party. here's a look at the 31 house democrats who are breaking ranks, signing a letter demanding that the bush tax cuts be extended for everyone. michigan congressman gary peters is one of them. he joins us live from capitol hill. thanks for being with you congressman. >> great to be with you. >> i know it's a tough time. there's a lot of decision to be made. one of them has to do with the tax cut issue. why did you decide to sign on to this letter, to extent the tax credits for everyone at this point? >> i think it's important to clarify at that letter says it's a temporary extension for everybody. we all believe that the middle class tax cuts for people $150,000 or less should be skengded. and that should be done permanently, but given the still fragile state of the company,

although we've seen eight months of positive job growth, it's still fairly fragile, we believe there should be at least a short-term extension of all job cuts looking the a year or two. hopefully, it's a position, kind of entrenched positions on both sides, i think it's important that we make sure we have tax cuts for middle class americans from $250,000 or less. that that goes forward and the other tax cuts until we see signs that the economy is definitely healthier. we're seeing signs now. >> is it one year or two years, when you talk about temporarily extending it for everybody, what would be the years? >> we're looking at one to two years. we also believe it needs to be paid for. whenever you talk about the tax cuts, we need to pay for it. we do have paid fors identified in letter. a short extension, one to two years. >> bottom line, is it an election year move. nobody wants to be in a campaign ad from their opponent saying,

hey, i voted to raise taxes. >> i think this is good sound policy, as the economy is slowlile recovering, this is not the time to raise taxes on everybody. i think you'll find that from most economists say it makes sense not to do that. it accounts for a large percentage of consumer spending. 70% of the economy is consumer spending. right now, demand is still soft on the consumer side. we want to make sure consumers are still out there spending, creating demand. also from the investment side, there are parts that are important, i believe for capital gains, dividends, dividend rates shouldn't be going up. this is a part that needs to be overall reduction stratty that needs to be laid out over the next year. we've got a reduction that needs to come back with plain to reduce the deficit. revenue may be part of it. this should be part of that discussion in a very comprehensive way next year. that is the best way to receive it. >> i just want to ask you this,

some of the polling show that a lot of people, more than 50% in the latest polling say it's a good idea to let taxes expire for the wealthiest income earners. if i'm sitting at home right now, i'm struggling to make ends meet, struggling to put my kids through college. what is your rational if you're speaking to me, saying it's a good idea to extend tax cuts for everyone, including the wealthiest income earners? >> right. first off, let's make it definitely clear that we need to have tax cuts for middle-income americans. we cannot hold that hostage. that has to happen and it has to happen very quickly. but in order to help families, we also have to make sure this economy is growing. we've had eight months of positive job growth. we need to continue that. we need to create jobs and when we're still in this fragile environment, it's best, in my belief and other colleagues of mine, it's best not to raise any taxes until we get a sounder footing in the economy.

11 be can be perfectly clear, we definitely have to make sure we extend the tax cuts for folks making 250 or less. right now, we've got gridlock here in congress. we've sought sides digs their heels in. i think it is wrong. i think what the american people really want to see is congress coming together, having a compromise, making sure we're helping middle class americans and also making sure we're helping the economy. this should not be about partisan politics on both sides. >> i don't want to talk over you but i want to make sure people understand if legislation is not introduced, if there is not some agreement, the bottom line is it's the equivalent of a tax hike, right these bush cuts are set to expire, that means they're about to expire for the middle class as well if you guys don't take action? >> that's right. the rates will go up if we do not take action. that's why we cannot let partisan gridlock to prevent that from happening to middle class americans. i think that's why it's important to take out compromised positions to do

what's important for the economy, but most importantly, middle class americans and that's to make sure that the tax rates continues in future are not raised. >> and will you speak to house speaker pelosi that you are going to talk about an expansion of these tax cuts for everybody will happen? >> right now, what i'm hearing from both sides, both sides aren't really willing to negotiate one way or the other. and that has me very nervous that we won't do anything by the year-end. we're going to have gridlock politics. that is very frustrating. we can't let partisan politics on both sides stymie what is very important to middle class americans. and that's to make sure that they don't see their taxes go up. that's why i think it's very important for us to stake out middle position, to about a centrist here, to find a common ground to bring both sides together in order to solve the problem to make sure middle class americans get the tax cut that they deserve. but also, make sure that the economy continues to get healthier every single month as we've seen in the last eight

months but it has to continue going forward. so i think we are staking out that middle position and hoping we don't have gridlock and accomplish something that's so important for the american people. >> we'll see if your party leaders are listening to you. congressman gary peters. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you. >> we've been talking about the anger within the voters. a lot of these protest votes taking place in primaries across the country. this is what frustrates people so much. if somebody can sort of give a little bit on their position, nothing's going to happen and everyone's going to see a hike. >> right. this is two years ago or three years ago, they stacked the deck. they made this bill so it would expire. if the tax bill was good back then, why didn't they pass lower tax rates. christine o'donnell, maybe she's got the answer. she shelves the republican machine in one. jim acosta in washington. >> that's right, drew. after some initial rumblings to

the contrary, national gop leaders are lining up to say we think we like christine o'donnell's brand of tea. i'll explain on the most politicipau politics in the morning.

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good morning, atl. a little air quality alert today as it was yesterday with a high of 91. today's current temperature, right now, 66 degrees. looking outside the headquarters of cnn. good morning, everybody. let's get you started with

tropical storm karl. 50-mile-an-hour winds. this thing came ashore to belize and the yucatan peninsula and reaching into the bay of campeche that is likely to become a hurricane. the national hurricane forecast brings it to category of the mexican-u.s. border and not terribly concerned but folks in northern mexico with mud slides and wind obviously. this is a category 4, igor. winds of 145 miles per hour continues to be a bit of a beast here and continues to eye bermuda over the weekend. saturday, sunday night. sunday afternoon probably when it hits bermuda. shifts either side, it's pretty small and looking for a miss but right now models focusing in on that. thunderstorms rolling across the great lakes right now stretching across the ohio river valley with severe weather in the

plains yesterday and it might get severe across this area later on today. ushering in cooler air behind the front. here's a myth:

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welcome back to the most politics in the morning. the playing field is set for republicans and democrats. primaries now all of them over and in 47 days voters will have their say. >> yeah. the parties plotting the paths to victories and we mean every hour we'll break down the big stories on the political ticker and our jim acosta is doing that in washington. the gop scrambling to get behind the victory of delaware's primary. >> right. i mean, you know, it seemed, drew and karen, after those results came in this delaware that, you know, the establishment republicans in washington were doing sort of a collective spit take and didn't like the taste of that tea brewed in delaware. now all of a sudden they're lining up and following that upset win in delaware. they're lining up behind christine o'donnell but karl rove is a republican who's sticking to his guns. he publicly criticized her saying she's made, quote, some

nutty statements in the past. and on fox newins he's made it clear he thinks she is the wrong choice. listen to this. >> christine o'donnell's now going to have to answer in the general election she didn't have to answer is her checkered background. i met her. i wasn't frankly impressed. it does conservatives little good to support candidates who at the end of the day while they may be conservative in their public statements do not have rectitude and truthfulness. i'm for the republican but we were looking at eight to nine seats in the senate. we are now looking at seven to eight. >> karl rove's asked about that and feels the same way. other republicans, they're saying something definitely different about christine o'donnell. take gop chairman michael steele, told john king they need to stop it and consider what sarah palin is saying. she had some harsh words for

karl rove, you know, as you remember, she endorsed christine o'donnell saying mr. rove needs to buck in, in an interview i saw on fox news we should mention sarah palin contributor to fox news like karl rove and described karl rove as one of these good old boys of washington saying she doesn't have anything against karl rove but need to rally behind christine o'donnell in the name of party unity. >> you have a state like delaware. leans blue. it's going to be an uphill battle. if you have people who maybe karl rove being realistic about whether or not she has a shot in a blue state. >> right. exactly. >> sat tat the same time, you w the female candidate and guys looking like they're against her. that's a problem republicans

don't want either. >> we're watching a political experiment in realtime. for the last 18 months, tea party movement, this was -- these were rallies happening all over the country. people upset about the bailout, people upset about the deficit and size of the national debt and now fielding candidates in political races all over the country and because, you know, most tea partiers, the vast majority of them are conservative, they're putting republican candidates in the races so you have establishment republicans like karl rove not so sure about this. one thing to mention this morning, you know, there's buzz generated about newt gingrich who was another one of these establishment republicans and some in washington wondering whether or not he's playing f t footsy with the tea party crowd to be in contention for the 2012 presidential race and john king asked michael steele about the comments from newt gingrich that the president has had some

kenyan anti-american comments, anti-colonial behavior. and essentially, john king asked michael steele about this and michael steele said, no, i don't think that gingrich was out of line. >> that's interesting, jim. i did read about that. democrats trying to make sure it sound like it was a racist statement. plays into the whole thing about white people, tea parties, racism. >> right. >> far off the tracks so it's going to be interesting but i think karl rove is maybe second guessing what he said on election night for sure. >> a lot of politics in the republican party played on the conservative end of the spectrum. and there are some politicians who are comfortable with that and some who aren't and what we're going to watch in realtime over the next month and a half is who's right? whoever is right is the one who, you know, who wins. not necessarily the person when's actually right but who wins is often right, right? >> tea party shaking it up,

thanks. check out the political ticker, cnn.com/ticker. >> we'll be right back with your top stories. at wachovia and we, we're with you, when a house turns into a home... ...when a passion becomes a career... ♪ ...when a relationship turns into a lifetime... and when all the hard work finally pays off. we're with you when you need someone to stand by you. wachovia, wells fargo, and you. together we'll go far.

as volatile as markets have been lately, having the security of a strong financial partner certainly lets you breathe easier. for more than 140 years, pacific life has helped millions of americans build a secure financial future wouldn't it be nice to take a deep breath and relax? ask a financial professional about pacific life. the power to help you succeed. good morning. thank you for being with us on this thursday, 16th of september. >> a lot to talk about. let's get to it, shall we? president's $42 billion aid plan for small business should pass the senate today thanks to

help from two republicans an now shifting to the bush tax cuts. the president wants them extended for everyone except wealthy people and he's facing stiff opposition to the plan this morning from members of his own party. did delay lead to disaster? at least four people are dead and almost four dozen homes incinerated in san bruno, california. three people still missing and the gas company may have known the area was in need of repairs and put them off. craigslist, promising to keep it clean, telling a house panel that the adult services section is gone for good after an investigation by our own amber lyon and she'll join us with highlights of the hearing. the am fix blog is up and running. join the live conversation. we begin with the president's tax cut plan. coming under fire from both sides of the aisle now. 31 house democrats have signed a letter to their leadership opposing the president's plan to

extend the bush tax cuts for the middle class only and not the wealthy. >> earlier on "american morning" one of the dissenting, congressman gary peters of michigan on the house financial services committee said it is not the time to hike taxes on anyone. >> when we are in the still very fragile environment, it is best in my belief not to raise any taxes until we start getting on a much sounder footing in the economy. that's going to help everybody in the economy. let me be clear. we have to make sure we extend the tax cuts for folks making $250,000 or less. >> your take home pay is on the line. dan lothian is live at the white house this morning. to make sure people understand, if no action is taken, that is effectively a tax hike for people in the middle class, right? >> reporter: that's right. that's a big concern for the white house here and now a big challenge with the dissent within the president's own party. this largely has been framed as

democrats on one side, trying to provide relief for middle class americans. republicans on the other side trying to block this progress. and now, of course, the president's dealing as we pointed out with se democrats, moderate conservative democrats who are very concerned going into this election cycle, the midterm elections that they have to deal with potential tax hikes here. you heard representative jim marshal of georgia saying, quote, we should not be raising taxes in the middle of a recession. representative childers saying, quote, it is essential we keep things as they are in the short term. the white house seems to be downplaying this entire issue. white house spokesman robert gibbs saying that the democratic party is a very big party with a lot of differing views. much like you see among republicans. the bottom line, though, is that there appears to be no compromise on this issue from the white house. the president has been very clear that allowing an extension of tax cuts for the wealthier

americans, couples making more than $250,000 a year, is something that the country simply can't afford. the lawmakers need to push forward and from viding relief for the people that need it most and those people are middle class americans. >> right now, we could decide to extend tax relief for the middle class. right now, we could decide that every american household would receive a tax cut on a first $250,000 of their income. once again, the leaders across the aisle are saying, no. they want to hold these middle class tax cuts hostage until they get an additional tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of americans. >> reporter: so you have these tax cuts, jobs bill. $350 billion in proposals including infrastructure jobs that this white house is really pushing hard on the bottom line. two key things, first of all,

job creation to get americans back to work with a high unemployment rate. bring it down. the president wants to show the americans the administration is doing it can to get the economy back on track. >> all right. thanks, dan. also this morning, seeking federal help for san bruno. california governor arnold schwarzenegger sends a letter to president obama requesting a disaster declaration for the gas explosion and inferno that killed four people and destroyed close to 40 homes last week. the fire and heat so intense that at first witnesses on the scene thought it was actually a plane that went down. >> and now we are learning there's evidence the disaster may have been extremely preventable. dan simon has the latest on the investigation. >> reporter: we have learned a nearby portion of the pipeline that exploded last week scheduled to be replaced a couple of years ago. pg&e got $5 million to do the work but it never happened.

the line that exploded last week was laid down in 1948. it was so old that for safety reasons pacific gas and electric made plans to replace a section of it in south san francisco a couple miles away. in 2007, it got rate increases to do the work. according to a consumer watchdog group, they got $5 million for the project. but the group call ed t.u.r.n. said it never happened. >> the money is spent on what they call higher priority work. >> reporter: what was that? >> well, you can't track the dollars one by one but we do know they spent $62 million more on management incentive bonuses than they had forecasted in 2009. >> reporter: mike florio is a senior attorney for the wash dog saying they spent the money for

the lipipeline so it's seeking rate increases again for the same stretch of pipeline. how do you know this? >> because it's right in the documentation they file with the puc to support the rate cases. it's -- if you dig deep enough into these big, thick documents this is what you find. >> reporter: the california public utilities commission or puc is deciding whether to go along with the request. those documents provided to cnn by. t thet.u.r.r. says it's a risk and saying if it does no our, risks with this segment will not be reduced. high volume natural gas lines snake through the san bruno neighborhood. pg&e hasn't disclosed the

problem line but we discovered much of the line is through residential areas. this is another large section of pipeline, a mile from the explosi explosion. it is feet away from many homes. the location of pipelines like this are generally kept secret to literally provide terrorists are coming in and blowing them up so it's possible that people might be living next to them and not even know it. the only way to tell may be from the yellow sidewalk markers that, for example, used to alert construction crews of danger. it won't be until 2013 now until that section of pipe it. >> identified a new years ago will be fixed. >> if they replaced that section, maybe they would have found something that led them to look a mile or two south of there. we don't know that. but we do know the project was slated for 2009. it didn't get done. and now, they're proposing to do it again in 2013.

>> reporter: they provided with us a statement an i'll read it. it says, quote, pg&e is committed to performing the work necessary. accordingly, we're constantly prioritizing the projects using the most recent, up to date information available. in this particular, they did identify the line section as being a high priority project in the 2008 gas transmission rate case filing. subsequent to that filing, they performed an external kroegs direct assessment in 2009 and based on that updated assessment and the assurance it provided us, we rescheduled the project accordingly. they spent more on the gas transmission capital program than authorized for the period 2008 to 2009. so they're not denying the basic facts of the story but just saying it rescheduled things based upon priorities. back to you. >> all right. dan simon in san bruno, thanks. pope benedict with the royal treatment on the arrival in

britain. it is a historic visit welcomed by the queen. in the first speech, the pope urged britain and warned against aggressive forms of secularism. he'll celebrate a mass later this afternoon before heading to london. well, the imam behind the planned ground zero mosque and cultural center is accused of being a slum lord. an affidavit says he failed to maintain two apartment buildings in new jersey. among the complaints, well, lack of heat, mold, garbage and bedbugs. he has until this afternoon to show the court what he's doing to fix the problems. and new york city's mayor michael bloomberg wants to fine smokers for lighting up outdoors. backing a bill for plazas. the fine would be -- >> $50. >> $50. the measure expected to be introduced in new york city today and expected topaz. >> drew got a little excited

last hour and said 50 ground a pop which -- you know. >> it could help balance the budget. around here. i could pick up a million in about ten minutes. >> rob marciano's in the weather center this morning. following a bunch of different storms in the atlantic. >> yeah. and you know, we got new information in about karl. hurricane hunter aircraft in there and the winds strengthened to 65 miles per hour. even though it's a graphic saying 50. we'll update that for you graphically. 65-mile-a-hour winds and could be a hurricane very, very soon. the folks living in northern mexico will be under the gun. here's the forecast track for it. expected to become a category 1 storm, makeland fall. looks like feeling affects tomorrow and then landfall early saturday and that's going to spell trouble for the folks in northern mexico. certainly with heavy rain, pounding winds and mud slides.

a threat of mud slides. also watching igor which continues to be a category 4 storm with 145-mile-a-hour winds and a lot of computer models lining it up for bermuda over the weekend so that could be a scary thought here holding together. talk more about that in 30 minutes. back to you in new york. political storm a-brewing, rob. money pouring into the midterm elections. outside interest groups going straight to the republicans' wallets. who are these people? how much are they raising? michael crowley next. [ female announcer ] you use the healing power of touch every day. ♪ now the healing power of touch just got more powerful. introducing precise from the makers of tylenol. precise pain relieving cream works quickly to activate sensory receptors. it helps block pain signals fast

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. droil trouble for democrats. a new report in "time" mag sheen says the party may not have the cash advantage we were hearing about because so-called shadow republican groups are raising vast amounts of money. michael crowley with "time" magazine, his new story out in this week's edition of "time" magazine. thank you for joining us. who are the shadowy figures giving money to republicans? >> thank you for having me. they're shadowy in that the republican party -- republican party operatives set up a new infrastructure that is going to

pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the midterm congressional elections. and democrats are very concerned about this. it's going to neutralize what democrats for a time thought might be a spending advantage they would have. on the other hand, not so shadowy in that the figures behind this ironically very much the usual suspect insiders of the republican party, the same establishment that the tea parties trying to turn over so it's karl rove, it's ed gillespie, haley barbour and feeling in part a vacuum left by michael steele and also just taking advantage of the energy on their side. their donors want to give a lot of money and willing to give it to the groups that can raise unlimited amounts of money and taking million dollar donations in some cases from people like rupert murdoch. republicans don't have an equivalent apparatus. they're going to be outgunned on the front and very concerned about it. >> in the last election, the

democrats seemed to have the kind of advantage. there was a lot of enthusiasm. lots an lots of money being raised. are the republicans learning from the democrats? >> the republicans kind of gleefully admit they're sort of stealing the democratic playbook. i spent sometime with the executive director of american crossroads founded by karl rove and ed gillespie. they're running ads in many states and helping to coordinate other groups. the executive director of that group had on his desk a book about how billionaires helped to fund groups just like this for the democratic side in 2004 and 2006 and is an id that he was also reading a book by barack obama's campaign manager. republicans are learning from the way democrats did this in the last few cycles. unfortunately for democrats, they're not able to get these outside, unregulated groups running this season in part because their donors are not excited about giving money this time around. >> let me ask you about what

we're going to see so we have all these republican groups with all of this money. are they going to go after strictly obama? are they going to make this about an unpopular president and taking away his power much like the democrats did with bush? >> very much so. i mean, obama is sort of the, you know, the final point of where all their advertising is leading. but it's not necessarily obama's a bad guy but the administration. they're very much pushing on the debt, on spending on the stimulus. so all of the senators and house members around the country targeting, it's support of the obama agenda. now where it's more personal and what i think is interesting is the groups very much intended by the admission of the people running them to continue on past this election into the next election cycle. ie, the presidential election. republicans want to continue with this heavy financial firepower into the presidential election cam pane and they're

hoping that they will continue to outmatch democrats on this front and continue a big financial advantage that could be decisive. >> you mentioned karl rove as a power player in terms of money. based on what's happened with the o'donnell campaign and him slapped back from the conservative friends, does he still hold enough money to demand power in his republican party? >> well, that's one of the things that i think is so interesting about this story. again, it's really these establishment insiders who have been around for so long. the people that the tea parties are rebelling against and taking money from places like corporations and wall street that the tea partiers are not happy with either right now but they retain an enormous amount of power and directing hundreds of millions of dollars in the midterm elections. rove has fences to mend if he wants to with the tea parties and commands a huge amount of power. he knows wealthy donors all over the condition tri and can bring in a lot of money to groups like

this. i don't think karl rove by any means is sort of yesterday's news when it comes to republican politics. >> they still need him and his cash. >> yeah. absolutely. >> all right. michael crowley, thank you for joining us. sbrooesing read. thank you, sir. >> thank you so much. still ahead, the more you pay for a flight, the better the ride. actually it's low-cost airlines beating the big carriers for service and quality. we'll have a rundown of the top rankings. freed american hiker sarah shourd saying she is grateful and humbled by her release from the iranian prison but what is she going through right now? u.s. journalist rox anna sabari knows firsthand. she spoke with me after she was released from evin prison and joining us to talk more about what sarah may be going through right now and the fate of her two hiker friends still being held there.

my joints ache so bad, i wake up in pain every day. i want to know why. i want to know why my hair is falling out. how did this happen? how did this happen? a little pain in my knee. that's how it started. that's how it started, this rash on my face. now it's like my body is attacking me. i want answers.

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♪ i want to be sedated ♪ put me on a plane ♪ hurry hurry hurry before i go insane ♪ welcome back to the most news in the morning. time for mining your business.

americans like their discount airlines best. and it's not because of the lower fares. a survey shows passengers consistently rank airlines like jetblue higher than the big, traditional carriers in quality and service. "usa today" did a ranking for best airlines for quality and service. jetblue, hawaiian airlines, southwest, frontier airlines and air tran. >> did you ever wait four hours for cable guy and get stood up? >> yes. >> pay back time. a new contract calls for fines for every late service call. customers now eligible for a credit equal the a full month's bill if a technician is late or fails to show up. >> but the other thing, too, hi there. my cable's out. okay. we can pencil you in for next month. >> yeah. >> between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. the next month. >> yeah. but if they don't show up, free bill. >> okay. well, the head of a largest

retail chain in the world says socks and underwear are the hot ticket items for christmas. the president and ceo of walmart said they're focusing on practical every day gifts for adults because unemployment is still high and the economy on shaky ground and the kids can still hope for hot electronic gadgets. check out this. slugging it out last night. this is the south atlantic lead champion series. boom. play at the plate. that starts a whole drawl. look at this. you just can't get enough of this baseball brawl stuff. the ump's in there trying to push them off. >> i love the last guys trickle in and jump on the backs of other ones. >> they could care less. take one for the team. so they separate it all up. >> go blue claws. >> looks like students and young adults will rock the vote for the midterm elections.

which way that are they leaning? a live report coming up to answer that. critics call walmart of online sex trafficking, craigslist, that is. opening up saying that the adult ads are gone for good. but does that really mean that we won't see sex trafficking? amber lyon is live with the latest developments. ♪ [car horn honks] our outback always gets us there... ... sometimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪

28 minutes after hour. time for the morning's top stories. the president's $42 billion aid bill for small business expected to pass the senate today. it is getting two yes votes from defecting republicans. the big battle now switches to those tax cuts, the bush era tax

cuts as they're called for all americans. the they do nothing, everybody's taxes get raised. president obama wants the wealthiest americans to pay more next year but fellow democrats signing a letter opposing the plan saying no american should see a tax hike this coming year. there's new evidence this morning that the gas company knew people may have been living on a ticking time bomb in san bruno, california a. watchdog group saying they raised rates to fix a section of the line and never went through to the work. a mystery off the louisiana coast. a stinky one, too. thousands of dead fish. didn't take long to point the fingers at bp. state wildlife officials say low levels in the oxygen caused the fish to tie in low tide. follow-up now and craigslist

coming clean about the epidemic of child trafficking on the web. amber lyon brought the concerns to the highest level of crai craigslist, craig himself. >> they said that the adult services section is gone, won't come back and when things got lively, i guess. >> that's right, drew. the congress members wanted to make sure that they were staying true to the public in its new statement that they have no intentions to reopen the adult services section so house members drilled this representative about it. take a look. >> no amount of money is going to cause craigslist to reinstitute in another name this kind of site? >> i can't answer that directly because i'm not directly involved with the decision making process for this. >> i have already given you compliments for being a standard bearer for change but now i'm hearing that it might come back again. >> no. no. what i'm saying that we do not have any intention to bring that

category back and that money is not a consideration. >> all right, amber, they shut down craigslist with the adult services section. pimps moving these girls to other sites? >> well, drew, we have inside sources in the business and shortly after craigslist closed the adult services section we called all of our sources and they told us that they're not going to go to another section of craigslist but leave the site altogether and go to other sites like back page.com, red book.com. sites that advocates and attorneys general have been criticizing, as well. >> a game of knocking them down one place and pop up some place other. will the attorneys general trying to the same for the other sites? >> yeah. shift their focus and another thing on this topic, the president of the national center for missing and exploited children says that it's good to

just get rid of -- kind of break this down like you said. and craigslist was the central place where this was happening and pieced off on to other sites and they're hoping they can go after those. still ahead, will sarah shourd return home to the states after being held so long in an iranian prison? roxana saberi knows what it's like to be held in an iranian prison and we'll speak to her next. you hear what they're up to now?

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this just in to cnn. not good news. another big hit to the job market. fed-ex saying it's cutting 1,700 jobs and does see the economy improving. it's 100 facilities. the company usually seen as a good measuring stick for the economy because of its size and its global reach. well, american hiker sarah shourd we have been following this story of her being held in iran accused of espionage. but her fiancee, she's free now but her iffiancee shane bauer a

friend josh fattal are still there and could be tried on spy charges. our next guest, journalist roxana saberi spent 100 days in the same prison before she was finally released last year. she joins us this morning from knoxville, tennessee. first of all, great to talk to you again. you had written a book about everything you went through. how are you holding up? >> i'm doing fine now. thank you. it's great to be free. >> well, it's certainly -- you're the person to relate to this because you lived it. sarah's back. unfortunately, though, the two men are still being held there. and according to iran, they're probably going to at least make them answer or prove that they were not spying. if you could think about what she must be going through, what type of emotions when you're finally free but still so worried about people trapped or being held. >> right. i'm sure she feels a lot of mixed emotions. she must be happy on one hand to be with her family and loved ones and out of prison but she

did leave her fiancee shane behoond and their good friend josh so i think she must feel kind of a contradiction in emotions and she said she doesn't feel free and won't until those two are also freed. >> you also spent sometime in solitary confinement when you were in evin prison as we understand it. that was her situation except for short bursts of time seeing the other two men held or have some sort of interaction with people in the prison. what is it like? what does it do you to be in solitary confinement and no idea what's happening next? >> well, it is very difficult and i was in solitary confi confinement for two weeks but sarah was in solitary confinement for many months. except for those short visits with shane and josh as you said. it's hard because people i think need human interaction. it's just natural. and when you're alone. you feel helpless. you might feel hopeless. at first you might be in a state

of denial. you ask or tell yourself i can't accept this. just a nightmare. it is going to end. maybe you also feel anger, anger towards your captors, at yourself. i felt anger toward god, as well. i said, why are you? why don't you save me? at first, anyway. and also, i felt afraid because of uncertainty and didn't know what would happen to me and how long i would be there and you feel a sense of dependency upon others because you rely on the grds and captors to help you get in touch with the outside world. you feel helpless. you don't have the independence that you used to have. it's not e. you can't make a phone call whenever you want. every phone call is so valuable. things you took for granted. the freedoms are -- you realize the value of them. you want a lawyer. difficult to see your lawyer. you want presumed innocent until guilty and sometimes the opposite there.

presumed guilty until you try to prove yourself innocent so it is difficult. >> it's proving to be difficult for her, as well. there's two people being held. let's listen to a little bit of what sarah said shortly after her release. >> i just want to assure you that my commitment to truth will not change. you know, when i go back to my country and never say anything but the truth to media and i will sot succumb to any pressure. >> what do you think she's referring to there? i know that you also talked about the fear and intimidation you lived with and even after being free looking over your shoulder not knowing if you would ever really be left alone. >> yeah. i think sarah must be in a very difficult situation because she knows her two friends are still in prison and what she says might have affects or consequences on her two friends who are still supposedly supposed to stand trial. so it's very sensitive case for her and i don't know if she was

warned at all or told directly orren directly or implied to her what she says can have an affect on her two friends. for me, and i know it's not just me but there were other political prisoners there, as well; who have been threatened before i was released from prison. i was threatened by my captors saying if you talk about certain things, i will sign your death warrant and the other side i think you've seen how capable we are. we have agents all over the world. and we can find you anywhere. you might be reporting on a trip in afghanistan and we can kill you and make it look like you died in a car accident. i'm not the only one threatened like this. i don't know if they did anything similar to sarah but she seems to be aware what she says can have repercussions for her two friends. >> have you been threatened since your release? >> no. and, you know, i don't know if they would ever go to those lengths to try to find me.

i know they have a lot of other things on their mind right now. >> you know, speaking of that -- >> at the same time -- >> speaking of that -- >> go ahead. >> what is the point of keeping these two still there and going through this long trial when, you know, most people pretty much agree they were hiking. maybe they shouldn't have been where they were but they were literally hiking when they were picked up. what is the point of going through this and making them prove somehow that they are not conducting, you know, spying activities? >> well, you know, it's hard to say exactly what's going through the minds of the iranian authorities because it's not very transparent system but one guess might be they can't just in their eyes let these people go and say, oh, you know, we shouldn't have held them for 14 months. they're innocent. they want to save face somehow, i think. and maybe that's one of the reasons they let sarah go but on

a high bail for the equivalent of $500,000. i mean, if they just let her go without a bail they would be basically saying we were wrong. she's free. they want to say she hasn't proved yet that she is not guilty. >> right. so there is a fear and, you know, a paranoia of sorts in iran among the leaders that perhaps they really were up to no good and, of course -- go ahead. >> well, i'm sorry. i don't know if they really believe that accusation. and i know in some cases they knowingly falsely accuse people of crimes they didn't commit. and in my case they accused me of espionage and then later on told me later in private they knew from the beginning i wasn't a spy and would never say that publicly, of course. i don't know how often it is that they knowingly falsely accuse others of espionage and in this case if they think that these three of spies.

>> so what is -- it goes back to my question about what is the point then? is that they underestimate the amount of public pressure? there was a lot of pressure put on them because of your being held an now as we know the three hikers' families have not given up. they have been on television. they have tried to get the state department involved. they have done everything possible to keep the case in the light. is that something iran wasn't expecting? >> i think that it does play a role with when there's international attention given to certain cases in iran and very important that international outcry continues and the mothers of the hikers have done a great job i think bringing attention to the plight of their children. i think the iranian authorities don't like attention on human rights violations in their country. not -- maybe not all of them really care but i think certain decision makers in power who care and if not they wouldn't try to sensor the iranian media or foreign media and images out of iran and deny so strongly

accusations of human rights violations against them. they wouldn't have their own satellite tv station like press tv in english or arabic trying to share messages with the world. so i think in many cases they do care about what the world says about their human rights violations and in this case, too, trying to say we were justified this holding these kids for practically four months and at the same time i want to stress that other than shane and josh, there are a lot of other iranian prisoners, political prisoners and prisoner of conscience who are being punished for just standing up for basic human rights and they don't have an american passport. they're not dual nationals like i was so their stories are often ignored or they're not known on the outside. >> right. >> and the whole world needs to speak out for them, as well. >> a lot of good points. thanks so much for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me. all right. coming up, we'll talk about

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oh! >> who says you can only storm chase in the spring? check out this video of sumner county, kansas. storm chasers out. baseball and softball-sized hail coming down there and ten reports of tornadoes, light damage from the system that rolled through. dramatic stuff.

good morning, everybody. same system less intense will roll through the ohio river valley today and then the threat for severe weather in place for the red highlighted area here. slightly cooler air coming in behind this system. speaking of systems, here's hurricane igor. 145-mile-a-hour winds. as far as where it's going, for folks in bermuda, tracking right for there potentially as a category 2 or higher storm during the day. figure on sunday hopefully goes either side of bermuda because if it's right over, it's going to be a whole world of hurt. all right. talk about tropical storm karl. 65-mile-a-hour winds and almost a hurricane and probably on the shores of northern mexico by tomorrow night an potentially as a category 1 hurricane. here's your forecast track from the national hurricane center. most of it should stay south of texas. some moisture in texas but looks

like another miss. well, the u.s. is missed quite a bit and texas been hit a couple of times so far this year. you're up to date weather wise. "american morning" is coming right back.

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♪ i guess i don't know my own strength ♪ ♪ just going to stand there and watch me burn ♪ welcome become to the most news in the morning. a sht of the control room there hard at work. he gets himself in every shot. did you notice that? >> i did. >> time for stories about your health. there is a study about the dangers of tanning beds like we need to hear that they're dangerous. people under 30 who use them are 75% more likely to get skin cancer according to the international agency for research on cancer. they say the use of tanning beds exploded in this country between 1973 and 2004. and during that period, the melanoma rate of young women nearly tripled. are new doctors making patients sick? according to a survey, more than half of them coming to work ill and more than a third did it more than once. a fear of letting doctors down was the most common reasons.

you might want to get a grip. researchers in britain say a firm hand shake appears to be an indicator for a longer life expectancy. scientists merged the results of 33 studies and found that elderly with firm hand shakes are more likely to outlive those with weaker hand shakes. so much for buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks. there's a peanut field free zone. >> they'll try out for the first time in september. 26, to be exact. banning peanuts in two sections of the park. we are learning who could be the deciding factor in the polls. jim acosta live in washington. jim in. >> president obama throwing a bone to progressives with the midterms fast approaching. i'll run down the items on the political ticker coming up on the most politics in the morning. ke a great day to save. oh, it's not just today. with our free loyalty program, you earn great stuff

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morning and when we say cnn equals politics we mean it. >> breaking down the big stories this morning with jim acosta live in washington. hey, jim. >> reporter: good morning. the white house looking to avoid a potentially bruising confirmation battle in the senate by not appointing elizabeth warren the lead the new consumer protection agency. warren, who, as you know, chairs the congressional oversight panel of the bailout and will serve as a special adviser to the president to help set up that agency that was created under the wall street reform bill and young adults could be the deciding factor in the midterm elections according to a poll by rock the vote. 77% of young adults say they're likely or very likely to vote in the election. and out in california, former first lady nancy reagan behind republicans meg whitman for governor and carlie fiorina for senate. of course, all of these items

can be fund on the cnn political ticker, go to cnnpolitics.com. we always want folks to go there, drew and kiran. >> absolutely. on the hour, every hour. do it here on tv and do it on the ticker. thanks, jim. >> you bet. all right. well that's going to do it for us. continue the conversation heading to our blog, as well. cnn.com/amfix. we'll see you here tomorrow. >> a lot of talk about the rove stuff on the blog. go check it out. cnn news with kyra phillips will start right now. we hope. she is up in atlanta. down in atlanta. >> you are early. we have two more minutes. let's chitchat for a while. >> we technically started early this morning. >> what can we do for 60 seconds? soft shoe. drew's a pretty good dancer. >> let's talk about politics a enwhat you will do in the next hour and start now because i haven't eaten breakfast yet.

>> okay. go get you some breakfast. kiran knows the good biscuits. see you guys later. >> oh, yeah. i'll show you the cafeteria. >> good morning, everybody. well, the pope says that the church hasn't responded to the sex abuse problem like it should have and we're going to hear from a victim in the uk who couldn't agree more. a photographer was the eye of the civil rights movement and may be an ear for the fbi. we'll try to find out why the bureau would want this guy as its spy. and peanut allergy awareness in new territory a. peanut free zone at the ballpark. 6:00 a.m. out west. 9:00 a.m. in the east. you are live in the cnn newsroom. we begin with your money, job and taxes. this morning, covering several stories that affect your bottom line. just about a half hour ago we learned that initial claims for unemployment have dropped slightly. 450,000 americans filed for the